Two Adolescent Wizards, a Sapient Virus
by reinforced hell
Summary: The second in the "A Wizard, and his Viral Familiar" series.
1. Chapter 1

Previously

 _They stood there, in silence, before finally the boys had run forward to give him a tight hug. They were being sent off on the train they were about to board, and it was the last time they would see their father until the Holiday break. It was a very touching sight on the platform of 9 ¾ at King's Cross Station. Enough so that the_ Bloody Press _had decided to take a picture of the scene._

 _John absently wondered at what type of angle the reporter would do before he finished the moment with his sons, and sent them off on their second year, his "nephew" among them for his first year._

* * *

Chapter 1

It was a long trip to the Old Castle, but John was a very patient person. It also meant that he could mingle with his fellow firsties. Or, at least, make introductions.

There was a very good reason why mature children rarely get along with _children_. This reason was either that the mature one couldn't stand the immature, the immature couldn't stand the mature, or both. Now, being what John was, he was quite capable of acting as a staple. But normally that acting stemmed from the experiences of others, as well as mimicking the makeup of their physiology.

This was a problem for John, as he had never consumed a child, or an immature person, so he didn't really have the proper experience to back up his acting like he normally would have. He had the physiology down, as he knew scientifically how the mind worked, and more so how a human mind developed. Really, it was the experiences that he took from that bolstered his acting skills, and experiences taken from adults that experienced being a child long ago didn't count.

Mainly because they had forgotten, or that they hadn't been able to fully empathise with being a naive or immature kid because that stage of their life was over.

Again, back to the problem at hand; John couldn't really connect with his fellow classmates-to-be. Sure, he could play a convincing child as far as an adult was concerned, but a child would be able to see through the disguise with ease. It was basic social mechanics.

It might be a mystery how one would know that the other is not one of them, when they put up a very good act, but it still happened nonetheless.

It didn't help that the Purebloods - what passed for upperclassmen in the Wizarding World - thought his as a "mudblood". They thought this because they didn't recognise the name "Mercer". He would have to change the way the name "Mercer" was perceived if he wanted to get anywhere with it; he knew that the Wizarding World was based off of the sole idea of Nepotism. Unless he wanted to consume a lot more people, he would have to work up the name of Mercer.

He already had enough people consumed that he could get some credence to his name, he just needed to set his already-made plan into motion.

With these thoughts on the backburner, like how an expert chef would mind a certain part of the dish while it cooked, John's Avatar named Juno Mercer made his way from compartment to compartment. John didn't really know what he was looking for when he looked through the options available to him. Finally giving up on looking for an entirely new compartment, John decided to go for the closest one to Juno.

After he knocked on the door of said compartment, he wasn't surprised when a voice offered itself up from inside, "Come in." Unsurprisingly, it was a young voice, but it was also unmistakably feminine; he did as the voice told him to.

Inside the train compartment were two girls, not much older than his sons, by John's estimation. They were both blonde, with blue eyes. One had a Slytherin crest on her Hogwarts robe, which said plenty of what had type of person she was. The fact that both girls had a robe on so early in their trip to Hogwarts meant that they were both most likely eager mundane-born students, or that they were both wizard born. He doubted the first, as the already sorted one had been through the process before. It was unlikely that they would keep the "first year awe" that would urge such a decision.

Wizard raised, then.

The two were very alike aesthetically, which made John think them as cousins at the least and more than likely to be siblings. That was the least of what their looks suggested though, as he could easily pegg them as the Greengrass siblings. He greeted them as such, and their eyes widened when he had done so within the proper Pureblood custom that demanded of him.

"You know our names, but I am at a loss as to what yours is, Mr.?" She had a faint smile on her lips, which was a good sign. Normally, if a Pure-Blooded child did not recognise your name, or your face, then you were dismissed out of hand. It was a mistake on their part, as that lead to them not knowing of a potential ally or enemy. Apparently the older of the Greengrass sisters knew this, or she had not the prejudiced that ran rampant in the Wizarding World.

"Mercer, Juno Mercer," Juno introduced the Avatar's name.

The sisters both raised their eyebrows, but again it was the older of the two that acted as spokeswomen, "I do not recognise the name Mercer for being an Ancient house, or a Most Noble house." It was said in light confusion, that which disclosed to John that the girl knew how to at least moderately control her own emotions.

Juno grinned, and opened his mouth again to speak again to Daphne and Astoria Greengrass.

* * *

John had had a few accidents when his attentions were diverted from places when they shouldn't have been. One such accident lead him to meeting an older man by the name of Professor Xavier.

Another led him to the situation he was in. It was in a Sector adjacent to the one he had found Professor Xavier's world. In fact, because of the general self-imposed policy of finding where "Earth" was supposed to be, he had crash-landed on _another_ Earth. If his geography was to be trusted, it was in the place where New York City was supposed to be.

He was ever-so surprised when New York was, in fact, there. But what was more surprising was that there were a few - somethings - that were attempting to slow him down, and help him regain control. He couldn't use the frameshift fields that his ship was equipped with, as they hadn't been properly calibrated to work in this atmosphere yet. John was slightly frustrated by his lack of attention that led to the crash of one of his vessels already. He _really_ didn't want to lose this one as well.

Thankfully, the sublight engines that he had the foresight to install on his ship in the first design was still there. They were normally not used too often, but they were there for emergencies like this, or for maneuvering into a position when he couldn't use the standard - albeit extremely advanced compared to the original designed - frame-shift technology.

He just had to get them online, which was hard considering his position. Again, John was thankful that he had the foresight to look into something of this possibility. After-all, he did think Murphy a genius. It only took thirty seconds to get them fully functional, and gave him thrust. With the way his ship was designed, this thrust gave him some lift. Essentially, he was able to pull up from his steep dive with some skillful flying.

He had _just_ missed the top of a tower that proudly claimed its name to be Stark, in capital red letters. It was only the third time that he didn't need to take the local language out of a sapient mind, in order to understand it. It was a rare thing. It wasn't too rare that he didn't _not_ notice the red human-shaped missile following him. John assumed that it wasn't actually a missile, but a platform. It wouldn't be the first time that there were digital life forms that had followed him in such a fashion. It was still creepy that it was human-shaped, though.

Whatever it was, he doubted it could follow him, where he was going.

John increased his engines' output substantially, and in but a few moments, he was in a geosynchronous orbit around the ball of green and blue. He decided to hang around, as he reasoned that if the populace of the planet had amassed that much technical prowess so as to create something like he had seen, he figured that it wouldn't be long before they reached the space age. Then again, he was speaking "not long" in his own sense of passing time, which didn't really give a standard sense of "not long" to a lowly mortal being.

It wasn't long before he had found an anomaly on the planet. He had, earlier in the year - according to the planet's timeline -, switched out the vessel from the standard exploration class, to a nice science vessel.

Unlike the smaller fighter-sized version, the science class had enough room to have a comfortable sized lab, a full bridge, and enough shielding to withhold the force of three of his dedicated fighters with a Reaper from the Eezo using Sector as backup. Despite this, fighting wasn't its main focus. It was more big on defence, so that in the event that he had to enter the vessel into a self-destruct scenario, it would be possible to transfer the data stored on the ship off in time. In order to have the data there, though, it had to come from somewhere. Basically, the main purpose wasn't to get into a fight or to explore, but for science; hence the lab, and flight not fight response of the vessel.

Back to the anomaly.

Sense he was positioned in a geosynchronous orbit above the tower he originally almost clipped, he was in the ideal place to see it. It looked like a beam of light headed towards his ship, which immediately had John take evasive maneuvers as he had assumed it was meant to harm him. Or, alternately, there was an accident and this was a harmful byproduct of that accident.

He doubted it was that last option.

He was wrong in to assume it was headed to him, as not long afterward there was a large… wormhole that opened up in the higher atmosphere. The reason for his hesitation for his pegging it a wormhole was that it wasn't a sphere. What's widely known about wormholes was that they were effectively a tear in space-time leading from one place in said position to another. What most overlooked, however, was that space-time was three dimensional, not two dimensional. So, a wormhole wouldn't appear to be a two dimensional "hole", but instead a spherical hole. It was an area in which there was not really any area.

It was a common misconception, as it was incredibly hard for three dimensional beings to imagine such a thing, or even the four dimensions required to make such an event possible. The only reason why John didn't have problems with it was that he was a hiveminded "individual" that existed outside of multiple Sectors.

He decided to investigate this anomaly. Quickly, a few Avatars had shifted their biomass into a battle-ready form, mainly one he had developed a very long time ago being that of a very effective form. It would be a perfect opportunity to have a live test of the armored forms with the added Em in the bodies.

Each of the armored Avatars were covered with a very hard, densely packed black armor. The armor had spikes and ridges protruding from them, while there were scarce few smooth places. In fact, the only spot in which there wasn't a place where a fleshy being wouldn't puncture themselves on was the face and top of the head. Even then the head was slicked back to where the back of the head had ridges of their own. Unseen were their insides, where normally John had had skin underneath the hard carapace now was an improved version of a kevlar-like skin. Beneath that were extremely efficient muscles, dense bone, and in the very centre of the Avatar was a core of Em. It was everywhere, and replaced where veins and major organs would be for a normal human. Now, for where the digestive tract was supposed to be, he had a very high density energy storage. In a way, John supposed, it was digestion for him.

The only real thing that separated the Avatars from each other were what their arms were made of. One, designation Alfa had a sword that replaced his right arm, and his left was replaced by a shield. Another had both arms replaced by a versatile long-range weapon. On the right was a design based around the original Whipfist that his creator had evolved, but heavily modified to be generally better. The left was a projectile weapon to shoot out infected spikes, about as big as a railroad spike, and programmed to turn its victim into biomass. Any Avatar would be able to use it for their own purpose later on, to charge their batteries or for other purposes. The last two were for very up-front assaulters, with both "hands" having been replaced by either massive fists to smash things with, or claws to tear things apart.

The ranged one was designated Bravo, the heavy fisted one was designated Charlie, and the last was Delta. Alfa's goal was to add backup to Bravo while Charlie and Delta went ahead for close assault.

Each four were fired out of the ship to the planet for an orbital drop; unlike the last time John had plummeted to a planet in a similar way, these avatars were prepared for entering an atmosphere at near terminal velocity. In hindsight, though, having them land in a highly populated area was not really a good idea. Thankfully he hadn't landed on anyone, but he was quite close to it.

On an angle, all four Avatars had landed atop of the building emitting the blue beam of light. Above them, the strange portal let through a variable army that immediately began invading the city. The various militaristic personalities in John recognized the tactics as those that terrorist would use. They were scare tactics, meant to instill disarray and dishearten the defending force, with the added "benefit" of keeping the defenders disorganized.

It was distasteful, and quite cowardly for them to do this method, as it resulted in a lot of civilian deaths. In fact, the civilians were _actively_ targeted using that method. John had morals, however dulled they were, and decided to interfere with the invader's plans.

He had hoped that he wouldn't have to use the weapons he had, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Seeing as he wasn't part of the invader's team, and that he was quite close to what amounted to as a strategic point in their attempt of invasion, he was also attacked. Any that got close enough to do so, though, was efficiently taken down. Bravo was especially useful in the environment that they were in.

John had piloted the two other avatars Charlie and Delta off of the building to be useful elsewhere. That was before a rag-tag team of people had joined in on the frey. Charlie and Delta were briefly mistaken as part of the invaders, and so were shot at by the team.

John was amused, as if they could actually do anything effective against him. One, a blonde in "ye olde" armor had taken a hammer to the sky, only to have lightning come down on Delta. The Avatar had stood there and took it, channeling the electric energy through himself; he had half go to charge its battery, a quarter was transferred into usable Em, and the rest went to getting back used biomass. Delta nodded in thanks for the unintentional recharge to the male blonde.

Then, to show off, Delta concentrated enough charge into each of its claws, leapt into a flight path of a literal beast of a dropship before stabbing the charged blades into the beast. The electric discharge was enough to fry the insides of the beast, and then he lept off out-of-sight from the rag-tag team.

Charlie, however, was shot at from the red human-shaped robot with an energy bolt. The bolt made a small hole in the center of Charlie's "head", which immediately regenerated, and Charlie then went off to smash a few of the invader's around them, before moving off. That was only after it had "looked" at the Red One with its eyeless face, tilted its head, and then shook its head in a way that had reminded the group of what one would do if they sighed.

Back on the Stark tower - as the name on the side proclaimed it to be, Alfa took care of the ones that got too close for a while, before Bravo had started up with the ones at range. Eventually they were kept at bay, so Alfa got busy with a shielded thing that was projecting the blue beam of light. There was a cube of blue inside, and as Alfa had shifted its shape to a better form for what John had in mind, John inspected the device. John used all the sensors he knew of, and then created a few on-the-spot to best assess what was in front of Alfa.

Eventually, John knew what the cube was, and roughly how it worked with his examination. He had then knew how to get pass the shield made entirely of energy. Alfa shrouded his arm in Em, then reached into the machine to take out the cube to disconnect it as the power source. He succeeded, and with it the portal had started to collapse in on itself.

Absently, John noted that the Red One had flown into one of the large flying worms and had pulled a Greek God on the thing. What really had his attentions, though, was the crystalline structure in Alfa's three-fingered hands. Upon closer inspection, John determined the blue cube to be a crystallized version of Em with the center of liquid crystal.

It was strange, considering that it would take some type of dedication to crystallize Em, as it wouldn't appear that way naturally. At least, it wouldn't appear that way in Sector Zero, as far as he knew. He knew how to do it, it was just a matter of determining _why_ he would want to grow a crystal version of Em. Furthermore a cube of crystal Em with the center as liquid crystal.

As of that moment, he had no use for a crystal version, but it would be a useful research project for his science bases off in Sectors Z1 through 3. After the observations were made and John's musings thought, he then had fully liquified it, and Alfa had brought the liquid Em into the Avatar's body.

John didn't know that it was stolen from someone else for the invaders to use, and he had not known that they would be upset at the fact that he had effectively stolen it from them as well. John had thought he was stealing it from his enemies, not his potential allies.

He would probably be able to talk his way out of any trouble were it to arise. John's avatars had then made their way to properly introduce themselves to whomever was in charge. He had a strange feeling that one of them was the owner of the building he was on.

But that was not to be, as there was a nuke incoming on his location. John's avatars did the equivalent of a sigh in their form to signify John's opinion of the situation. Reluctantly, but in necessity, John's nearby science ship had maneuvered itself to intercept with the nuke, and it made it to the nuke just seconds before the Red One had made it there. He had no idea what the robot would do with it, once he had it.

The science vessel quickly secured the moving missile inside of itself, and then had left the atmosphere and moved a safe enough distance away from the planet before it was dismantled. It was a very delicate process, disarming a nuclear missile while technically "in flight". Thankfully, John had the know-how to do so safely, and had fully dismantled the bomb without it going off.

* * *

 **A/N: Hopefully you all like the first Chapter of the second in the series. The goal of this "book" will be the end of Harry and Kevin's second summer holiday off from school, like the last one.**

 **Please review, as I love reading your thoughts on what I wrote, whether it be good or bad. That, and I love it when people give me ideas for what to write, as it helps to stimulate my mind. (The only downside to my mind being stimulated would be that it would be harder to sleep... for various reasons.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

The halls were just like John remembered them to be when he had accompanied his sons to Hogwarts for their first time. The younger of the children he had been talking to, young Astoria Greengrass, had been sorted before Juno. She had ended up in Slytherin, for which John was glad as he had hoped the girl had gotten in the same house as her sister.

It was finally time for Juno Mercer to be sorted into a Hogwarts house, and he had sat upon the rickety old stool upon Professor Minerva McGonagall's verbal prompt of calling his name. John was happy to note that Harry and Kevin's faces were hopeful, and were paying close attention to Juno.

The old, talking hat was lowered onto Juno's head so that the Avatar couldn't see out from underneath the brim. Immediately following the aging professor's hand releasing the hat, Juno could feel tendril-like prodding into where his mind would have been. It eerily reminded John of what he usually did when consuming a person, and had reinforced the already-there defenses so as to better resist the different tactic of intrusion. So far, John had only encountered brute-force techniques, or techniques following a similar design to that of computer viruses. This one was slightly different, and John thought that it would probably be because of the fact that the old, tattered hat was literally _made_ solely for mental intrusion.

Then, Juno heard a voice whispered into his ears, and he knew it to be from the hat upon his head. It said, "I do not mean you harm, young one, I just need to sort you. No-one will know but me what resides in your mind."

Juno had snorted in amusement, and he replied with, "I'm sure I could trust your word on that, what with how much a hat has honour." It was said dryly, and with an undertone of amusement. "How am I to trust you, an unknown that does not have any proof of what he claims?"

The tendrils that John felt across his psyche had frozen in place for but a moment, and John could practically _feel_ the surprise that they gave off upon his whispered reply. Then, the hat on Juno's head had gave a quiet chuckle, and then it had said, "I suppose I don't need to see into your mind then. You would do well in Slytherin with the way you protect your secrets, but in Ravenclaw lies those that use logic to argue their side, such as how you do. The choice is yours, all you need to do is make it."

John thought about the two possible houses very carefully. In Ravenclaw John would have the ability to have Juno closer to his "cousin", he would have the prestige of being intelligent already, and there was the added benefit of having the chance to scout out studious individuals for hiring. For Slytherin, there was the issue of being looked at as "Dark" by the "Light" sided magicals, there was the benefit of having an easier time of making connections and rising in power as there normally resided the political families. There was a strange sense of loyalty that John had observed of the snake den, in that they tended to stick together against non-slytherins, but they had absolutely no problem of stabbing fellow Slytherins in the back.

John had weighed each and every pro versus the cons on why he should choose Slytherin or Ravenclaw, and eventually a conclusion was reached - that which took less than a second when he used all of the dormant processing power that he had available to him. He chose Ravenclaw, as it would be best suited for his goal of being there for his children, and for his plans of being in the magical world.

He probably could have done a mass memory change, but he didn't really want to at the time as he didn't want to affect any children's minds with his usual methods. He wasn't too sure, but it could have adverse effects on a child's mind, so he resolved to only use such things in emergencies. That, and he wanted a better perspective from the student point of view, as it would be better for when he reformed the educational system.

Luckily, he had already secured the Defence Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts this year. When asked, it was either his Avatar Joanne "Jo" Rowling - a woman posing as a witch with blonde hair and blue eyes and named after the women that had written the Harry Potter books in another Sector - or a man named Gilderoy Lockhart. Apparently, Dumbledore and McGonagall, his interviewers, had "felt that the man wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a matchstick and a needle, let alone how to teach a class." That, and apparently his Avatar appeared able to "hold her own against the curse of the position."

John had understood it as a cross between a transfiguration joke, and a slight against a wizard's ability if they couldn't do a spell taught to first year students. He felt that he needed some time to get used to the educational jokes he was going to be subjected to.

Back to the sorting ceremony.

It was always strange being in more places at once, no matter how much John did it, and it was even stranger so when he watched from multiple perspectives in the same room. John briefly entertained the thought that Agent Smith in that one media product felt something similar.

He wondered if he would ever find the world in which they actually existed. If he did, it would be further proof of his theory that _every_ piece of fiction was only fiction in the Sector it was written. John figured it would be fun to verbally chew out the machines that had turned to Sapient beings for energy. Then again, John really wasn't one to talk, having a look at his species' past.

To be fair, his species was specifically designed to do so, though. There was a reason why he was classified as a weaponized pathogen; it was because he was. In fact, he was up there with an extinction level event, but that was before he reached the stars.

Now he was much more dangerous.

* * *

Because it was deemed as an unimportant thought, the particular train of thought carrying the idea of what John was thinking used Juno's brain as the tracks. So it was a pensive-looking Juno that followed the prefects to Ravenclaw tower, with his mind on whether he should create a race of AI again. He defiantely knew _how_ , but that was part of the problem.

He figured he wouldn't do it now, as he was in a state of, "Been there, done that," in regards to AI. Part of the reason why he had done it to begin with was to challenge himself, to see if he could do it. In the end it was fairly simple, really, of how to do it.

Maybe if he steadfastly refused to do it the same way, he would be able. After-all there _had_ to be more than just three ways.

Maybe he should make it with magic this time? No, that would be too easy. After-all, a thousand years or so ago, four "educated" individuals had created artificial life on a _whim_.

He could try to use "Technomancy". Before he did that, though, he would have invent Technomancy as a branch of magic, and find a way to converge technology and magic to make such a thing possible. Perhaps he could use Juno and Jo could work on the project together, as Jo was a Professor at the school so she had the excuse for why Juno was so busy.

Besides, Ravenclaws were supposed to be studious, so most wouldn't bat an eye if one had approached a professor for extra help on project. It just so happened that Jo, or _Professor Rowling_ had "noticed" Juno's potential, and had granted the help.

John wondered if he could apply chemistry to potions. It would be worth the trouble of the experimentation process, if only to see the sorry excuse of a Potions Professor's expression upon realizing that an eleven-year-old had out brewed him. He also wondered if he could get away with having an eleven-year-old as a Professor in the backward educational system that was present in magical Britain.

Speaking of magical Britain, the citizens that belong to the magical world had still had to answer to the British monarchy. In fact, that had included the countries that had gone through a revolution. Apparently, when there was a revolution in the mundane populace, it had never carried over to the magical aspect of the society.

That meant that a lot of countries still had active magical loyalty oaths to the British monastery. In fact, the only country that had had the foresight to include the magical side when the mundane populace had deemed it time to part from Britain, was Canada. Apparently, when a country had a revolution or a declaration of independance, the nature of the magical Loyalty Oaths had prevented the magical side from participating. They prevented the magical governments from having a recognised break from the lion and unicorn. Apparently, it wasn't recognised as legal, but when Canada had taken its legal action for separation recognized properly for both sides by Queen Elizabeth II, magic had released the community from the Loyalty Oath as a whole.

It was why Canada didn't have to adhere to the Statute of Secrecy like the rest of the magical community. Of course, out of respect and politeness, the Canadian populace had kept the secret so as not to out the rest of the communities. It also wasn't really a problem as Canada's population was so low - compared to the rest of the world - that it didn't have many "in the know" to begin with. It was mostly treated as an open secret.

It was also because of this Loyalty Oath that magical Britain was the most powerful in the world, yet they didn't realize it, because they were self-governing from the Queen. They didn't really have the decency to keep her informed of the _entire world that she controls and only lets them self-govern out of goodwill_ because she was "Only a useless Squib."

When John had found out, and had figured out about all of this, he had been immediately glad that he had been knighted in the old way.

His position in the Wizarding World in the terms of Law was not dissimilar to the Spectors of his original Sector, with only the Royal Court that he had to answer to. Of course, being who he was, he _technically_ didn't have to answer to anyone, but he would play nice.

Really, if he was so inclined, he didn't even have to stay on the _planet_.

John briefly wondered if he should become friends with the Queen, and if he should expand to Canada. He didn't see any reason not to, and it might be interesting, so he decided to do it. Besides, he thought it would be about time that _the_ Queen of most of the Wizarding Word.

If he did, he would bring his sons with him. It would be a good learning experience for the boys, meeting their Wizarding World knew what was going on. That, and the time to make friends was always before you need them.

The musing that had been going on using Juno's brain had stopped - or been interrupted - when the Avatar along with the others in the group said Avatar was following had arrived at Ravenclaw Tower's entrance.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I know that that is not the author's name, but I wanted a male avatar, and I thought it was close enough, seeing as it's the name of the author's son.**

* * *

Chapter 3

The day had been going well so far. John had wanted to be all over the world, in every world he had found with a form of civilized intelligence. He had resolved the issue of how to not resort to essentially brainwashing a large majority of people in order to enter himself into a civilization. After-all, a person couldn't just appear only electronically without it being under a large amount of suspicion. That, and it wouldn't work for a species before the information age.

He thought that it might be slightly immoral, if you squinted, but what John would do is essentially make himself become a foetus in a species, and then follow the genetic material he could receive from both his "mother" and what the father would have been. And it would work without the mother having to menstruate too. He would just wait until he could collect the necessary genetic material to form a proper body of that species. But that was only for mammal-type species. Eggs were easier. If there was already a foetus present, he would either become its twin. Or, if a child was stillborn, he would become that child.

He would never do it before termination of a foetus or equivalent was generally publically accepted, though. If the mother wanted to terminate the pregnancy, then he would allow the growing avatar to be terminated, and start again with another prospective mother. He would also be a good son or daughter for the parents, weather adopted or biological. He would also go into different professions, to cover the entirety of the population.

It was the ultimate espionage.

It was a long project, though. So, really, it wasn't worth mentioning for a few years yet. Unless… No, John had patience, and he could wait for the standard time it would take for the development of a child. Or at least until the Avatar was actually useful.

* * *

John was observing a planet not far into the information age in terms of the technological timeline. As per the standard policy for finding a planet with a potential for being sapient, John was observing the planet and had just released the new idea of infiltrating a species when he had noticed it. If it weren't for John's attention to detail, as well as sensors specifically set up to detect anomalies, he wouldn't have noticed.

As it was, John had taken note of a substantial anomaly not dissimilar to the usage of Em, and had decided to take a closer look. A closer look indeed. John had just up and shot an avatar into an intercept to land in the middle of a field where the anomaly was. As it looked, all John could tell were two groups of people were lined up against each other. One side was significantly better dressed, if you were around the victorian era. The other side had a few people, a child, and some wolves staring at the other side. John didn't think that it was a pretty good place, seeing as the two sides were separated by a significant portion of land, and he didn't think humans - as he was sure they were a human controlled planet - wouldn't be able to effectively see that far.

John's SMARTS guided Avatar had landed perfectly where he wanted it to - well realistically perfect - and it quickly reformed out of the standard form for orbital drops to the one John intended for it to look.

The form was one of a young male, with brown hair and blue eyes. The Avatar was named Seth Meyer, and had utterly befuddled both sides of the little spat on the soon to be battlefield. Seth had acted like he had just fell off of a fence. He had gotten up, arm raised, and had said loudly, "I'm fine, I'm alright!"

Then, acting surprised, he had said, "What's going on?" Then, faster than the human eye could follow, a man with very pale skin and blonde hair had ran up to Seth. Seth had been laying on the floor, and a very cold hand had reached out to Seth's shoulder.

The blonde haired man had asked, with a soft and concerned voice, "Are you alright?"

Seth nodded while he said, "Fine. I'm alright, but Eli isn't going to be. Bloody bastard, where does he get off-" At that point Seth had begun muttering how he was going to claim vengeance on someone named Eli while standing onto his feet.

When Seth was fully standing, it was only then that Seth's age became apparent to all. He looked to be about twelve to fourteen from his height alone, but from the way his voice sounded the blonde was able to estimate it to be more around the older side.

Then, the blonde with a concerned face asked, "What's your name? Can you tell me what happened?"

"Seth Meyer, and the idiot I call a friend had thought it would be funny if he _jettisoned me out of the bloody ship._ The Bastard. Now, I'm really not supposed to be here, talking with the mortals, so I'm going to have to leave Mr…"

"Mortals?"

"Mortals? What kind of name is 'Mortals'? And why are you questioning your own name? Humans, so odd sometimes," Seth muttered to himself as he walked away, to the utter bewilderment of all present. John had thought that it was said quietly enough to be heard by the man, but he hadn't thought it could have been heard by both forces on the yet-to-be bloodied battleground.

Seth heard the start of another question from the blonde he still had no name for, but he chose to use 'Mortals' as his name until he was corrected. He had turned towards where he knew to be a descending ship, and Seth glared balefully at it. Well, more specifically the being piloting it. He continued to glare as said being had gotten out and into his line of sight.

When the boy, as its image appeared to be, Seth had punched him in the face. Then he proceeded to yell, "What the hell went through your mind?! Who jettisons their best friend out of a ship, to fall to a fucking planet, to land on who knows what?! I could have crash-landed on these good people, in this field, killing them all! Yes! You could have been responsible for all these innocent mortals' death! What then? Huh?"

Looking fairly ashamed, he sheepishly said, "Sorry?"

"Sorry! Sorry doesn't cut it! What kind of idiot does that? Sure we would live, but it still fucking hurt! You want to say sorry? Well you do a fucking orbital drop and you find out just how much it hurts to get burned up in the atmosphere and try and glide clear of any mortals!" Then, more to himself than to anyone else, Seth had asked, "Why did I let you convince me to go for a joyride in your dad's ship!"

Unknown to the rest, John had gathered more data from the point at which he had set down, and from the ship collecting data. It appeared as though the anomalistic Em was coming from the beings he had thought as human. John wanted to consume one of them for more information.

It was at this time that a few others had joined the three in the center of the field. There were three official looking men, standing imperiously and in a triangular shape pronouncing the frontmost one as the most powerful of the three. Weather that was to be politically, or in another sense was to be determined. When Seth had begun again to work up into another rant, his best friend had interrupted while looking at the beings that had moved close to them, "I don't think they're human, Seth."

Seth paused, cocked his head to the side, and turned to look at the "Humans" that had moved such a far distance in such a short time, that was the time it took Seth to say his short monologue. He made a show of sizing each of them up, and then saying, "Huh, well will you look at that? What do you think they are, if not human? They look like the little mortals… eh, who cares? They're still mortals, and I bet they'll still taste good."

Having heard enough, and having something that he viewed as food to slander him, the self-appointed king had rushed at what he assumed to be a human in front of him. But despite all of the speed afforded to the old vampire king, that same "human" had met his offence with a counter attack. So, that very official looking person with red eyes was suspended on top of claws so sharp they were only an atom thick on the edge. The diamond-encased armour that was their skin hadn't stood a chance.

Quickly and efficiently, the vampire was consumed, ending its very long and cruel life. John was disturbed by the race he had just discovered, but it wasn't all that different from the vampires of origins from other worlds. The only remarkable difference with these quasi immortals, was that they fed not on the blood for oxygenation of their cells, and use the new cells to replace their own, but to feed on the natural Em that existed in the world.

There were concentrations of this in the blood of beings, and the smarter the being, the more of it in the system. From what John had found in the genetics of the vampires was that they were able to store excess Em, which from their origins was tinted red, in their eyes. The less the amount of Em, the less the red tinting. But there was a problem with this method of survival, and that was the addictive properties of Em that had come into contact with blood. It was why blood magics were originally banned in the Ministry of Magic, in Sector 0, Earth. It was also one of the universal signs of "Dark magic" overdose or addiction in that Sector.

This was why the vampires were addicted to blood. They could eventually get the Em from other sources, but they refused to experiment, deeming it too "degrading". Except for a small few clans, which were the opposing forces of the fool John had eaten for experimentation.

Another interesting little ficlet was that these few that were "vegetarians" were more powerful, in general, to those that weren't. John hypothesised that with less availability to Em, the vampires had mutated to make their abilities more efficient, and therefore use less of what was essentially their life force for defense from their own species.

Well, after the mutation, John supposed that they would no longer the same species, but a subspecies; he was distinctly reminded of different races of human, dog, etc..

This analysis had taken only seconds, and in that time, both Seth and his "friend" had transformed into full combat forms. John decided to intervene in the little spat that had come about, because he believed this Cullen clan's case, more than a frightened confession. First John had wanted to state why he was going to kill off the this "volturi" force. "Avatar Seth has had violence acted upon him by foreign dignitary. This is an act of war. I will respond in kind."

And they did. The two Avatars present started to go about doing just that, starting with the volturi council members present. They left who they knew to be Carlile Cullen alone, in favour of taking out the volturi.

In the end, the entire volturi force had been destroyed, and remaining had been Avatars in combat ready forms. Some of the vampires had been cut to pieces and consumed by tenticles, claws, swords, whipfists, or smached, but most had been dealt with by way of altered spikes that John used for a ranged weapon against biologicals. These spikes, either thrown or fired potato-gun style, were only half an atom thick at the tip, and carried very specific biological weapons payloads that could carry any number of things. Some of the things that were loaded in there were of John's own design, and others were some of the worst nature has ever produced.

If, for example, John was fighting a biological, he might use specific Blacklight viruses within it, to gain more Avatars. But if John were to fight a cybernetic or artificial race, he would switch out that virus to utilise DNA taken from microbes that would eat iron, or feed off of electricity. If John wanted to be really nasty against that race, he would make viruses that were silicon based instead of carbon, which would take out the majority of their circuitry. This method would still gain him more avatars, it would just take longer than the normal few seconds.

After it was all said and done, it took only a few minutes, and all of John's Avatars were facing the direction of the worried and awed force ready to fight for a little girl's life. Collectively, the Avatars nodded, and then said in unison, "The volturi were nasty little quasi-immortal beings. Do not become like them, and remember that you all _can_ die. I'll admit I hadn't known you were vampires, and I hadn't known they were on this world.

"I commend your efforts into developing a cure for vampirism, but remember that you are not infected. It is not an infection, it only awakens Element M in your system to literally change your species from human to what you call vampire. And remember that you are not feeding off of blood, as your species thinks, but on the Em within the blood stream. Perhaps someday you will evolve to find ways to feed off of other sources of Em.

"The Em takes care of the upkeep of your body as well as oxygenation. It is why you do not bleed when your diamond-like skin breaks. It is also why you can do the things you can do.

"I'll leave you to find out the rest." With his long piece said, he had then uncloaked the ships he had stealthily brought down to the surface, and without a backwards glance, all of the Avatars had boarded and left.

John had a feeling that this planet would turn out to be quite interesting later on.

* * *

 **A/N: This is a little lighter than my usual chapter, but I'm not really in the frame of mind for creative writing. But I want to write, which makes it so frustrating!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: If any of you were wondering, I don't identify with any of the characters that I have ever created in any writings I have made thus far.**

* * *

Chapter 4

It wasn't long before Professor Rowling had gotten some disrespect from the students, because as far as they were concerned, she was only a temporary and it wasn't likely that she was at all competent. They thought she was like her predecessors, and she had done well to shoot down that notion immediately. It started showing with each year immediately, and she had shown herself to be a competent and fair professor to each year. The first years were the easiest, as they hadn't met the predecessors that the others had.

The last she had to do was for Harry's year. John hadn't planned on being any sort of lenient to his adoptive children in the form of Professor Rowling. In fact, Professor Rowling was to act like a cross between Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall. In other words: Joanne Rowling would be utterly terrifying, respected, and most importantly generally liked. John didn't know if he did it right, but that was how Rowling was supposed to act.

Every year had one student to blatantly disrespect the teacher, just like every class tested a teacher's resolve to see if they liked them or not. Her first class of Harry's year was no different in this aspect, other than the fact that there was one boy that didn't know where to stop.

As a general rule, John didn't particularly believe in punishment to be all too effective, but rehabilitation was another thing entirely. If they were rehabilitated, there wouldn't be any reoffending, as they were no longer that type of person. Punishment didn't really work for this, even the death penalty. Sure, it was true that they wouldn't be able to re-offend, but they were still not any sort of positive to the whole of the society.

Where did all of this apply to the one that didn't know where to stop? Well, John planned on reversing the way of thinking that the boy had. It was brainwashing, to reverse the brainwashing that was how the boy was brought up.

The lesson started off well, as much as any first class could, and Professor Joanne "Jo" Rowling started off with, "Good morning class! Notes out -"

Only to be immediately cut off by a blonde boy that John knew as Draco Malfoy to loudly state, "Why are you in _muggle_ clothing? Don't you know that this is a _Wizarding_ school?"

The only sign that Rowling had heard the boy's question was an answer of, "Twenty five points from Slytherin." Just because John didn't believe that punishment worked all that well, did not mean he wouldn't partake in it; it gave him warm feelings on the inside. Then, she continued on, "-We will be starting with a lecture. But before todays lesson, I will lay down some simple rules you are to follow. Do not speak when I am speaking. You are expected to raise your hand to get my attention, unless in case of an emergency. Second, and this only applies for the first few classes with me, you are to state your name before asking and answering a question. Third is that I will not tolerate any type of bullying inside and outside of this classroom. That includes any derogatory slurs of any kind, including against those of blood, and their alignment of magic. I do not want to hear any mention of "Mudblood", "Blood Traitor", "Inbred", "Death Eater in training", any insult of someone's magical orientation, and/or finally there will be no insults based on someone's Hogwarts house -"

As expected, there were some outbursts, "But they're Slimy, Dark, Evil Slytherins! How can you be defending them! And their families are Evil, they must be Evil!"

"Seventy five points from Gryffindor, and detention with me tomorrow during your lunch period; you can explain to me your view on these topics then. That's twenty five points per rule you break, and a detention for breaking said rules after _I just told them to you_." The boy, a red headed freckled kid, now had his face and ears flushed red in both embarrassment. Jo nodded once, and returned to her monologuing.

"The final rule, and most important one, will be no physical or magical aggressive behaviour inside _or_ outside of this classroom. And to be extra clear, these rules apply - save for the second - for both inside _and_ outside of this classroom. I don't care if another professor had given you a punishment already either, I will also give out mine, especially for the last one. After-all, I intend to be the one to teach you what you might have used, and I don't care if I'm stepping on any other professors' toes.

"That would mean the bias of others to their houses would not apply anymore, save that I would have to counter what they have done." Jo smirked at the thoroughly terrified faces before her. Then, she finished with, "So obey those rules, and we won't have anything to worry about, now will we? Are there any questions so far?" The general consensus of that question was a 'no' in the form of shaking heads. "Good," Jo said.

Then, "Now, onto the material!

"Today we will be discussing one of the most dangerous mistakes you could make while facing an enemy of any kind, and that would be underestimating them for any reason. For example, most of you had thought myself to be mundane born, just from seeing me dressed in mundane clothes.

"Along with that came the assumption of me not knowing as much from being mundane born…" And so the lesson continued in this strain, and Jo had illustrated specifically the dangers of going up against someone like her - someone that was a metamorphmagus. Well, that wasn't what Blacklight was, but it was the closest thing that the magical populace of this Earth had.

Besides, when John had looked at the genetic makeup of metamorphs, he had determined that they could do the very basics of what John's Avatars could do. For example, they could, if they were trained properly, completely regenerate an entire limb from scratch. Or, if they were particularly skilled, and if they had knowledge of biology, they could become biologically immortal. They were the most dangerous magical human that John could find, simply because it was theoretically possible for them to do the things that John could, and others couldn't.

Finally, John thought it best to wrap up the lesson with, "As you all should be aware by now, any and all spells can be lethal. Oh, don't give me that look! As this is Defense, I have to teach you how to defend yourselves against magical onslaught. Well, at least that is the goal. Your homework for today will be to come up with a list of spells that could be used for combat that normally would not be, and explain its use for combat purposes."

* * *

Harry had a new favourite class, and that was Defense. It appealed to him, in a way that he would be able to defend himself, and not have to rely on others to protect him. One thing that he did not want, was for someone else to get hurt on his behalf, and for him to be able to protect his friends. That one little spat in the forest, when he was younger, had shown him as much.

That was why he was excited for when his Defence teacher had started up a dueling club, upon a request of another brilliant student. Any were allowed to join, and participate, and all they had to do was follow the rules that the professor sets; there would be 'issues' otherwise.

Harry was with his blonde ravenclaw friend, his brother in all but blood, and his cousin. His cousin, curiously, was dressed in mundane clothing. When he was asked why, all that the boy received in answer was a curt, though not unfriendly, "You'll see." That had only piqued both his and the other two of their group's curiosity even more.

The Great Hall, where the club was hosted, was emptied of the large tables and benches that was normally there. Instead, there were large raised platforms scattered around, by which Harry thought to be where groups were to duel. Harry hopped he was able to duel that day, Saturday, seeing how there weren't too many platforms compared to the students wanting to participate.

It began with five people up on the stage, all of them professors, the center of which was none other than Professor Rowling. She was dressed in mundane clothing as well as Juno, which had gotten her some very odd looks from many a student, some of which had upright left upon seeing it. Curiously, when Professor Flitwick had seen it, he had only an approving eye and a slight smirk.

That brought the positioning of the professors themselves upon the makeshift stage. Professor Flitwick was standing to her right, while Snape was to her immediate left. There were two others there, namely Professors McGonagall and Sinestra, on the ends. Sinestra was beside Snape, and McGonagall beside Flitwick. Harry thought it funny, the way that their own childish tendencies still translated so well over to the adult world; it was only more subtle.

Their hostess started off with, "The same rules as for my class still apply, as you should all be now familiar with. The only exception to this, of course, would be that you are permitted magical violence, but only while on the dueling platform.

"Another, added rule, is that breaking these rules more than twice will result in your expulsion from this club. That also applied for disobeying an order given to you by one of the referees, without reasonable cause.

"With that out of the way, let me introduce you to the referees. To my right is Professor Flitwick, an ex professional dueler that had been kind enough to assist me in running this fight. To his right is Professor McGonagall, someone that had been a lead role in the resistance of the latest war that had affected magical britain. To my left is Professor Snape, and someone with a similar although more active role as Professor McGonagall. To his left is Professor Sinistra, and though she often has her head in the clouds, had once gone through Auror training. To the sides of the hall are the nurses' stations, where Madam Poppy Pomfrey and Apprentice Healer N. Tonks will take care of any and all accidents that may occur.

"But finally, there is also one of your fellow students that will be helping to referee the matches; his name is Juno Mercer. If you wouldn't mind, Juno, would you come up here please?" Harry heard Juno sigh, before he aquested and was then before Professor Rowling, with her hands resting on his shoulders. There were some loud murmurings that broke out, and even the professors looked unsure of the decision that Rowling had made.

* * *

John let the murmurings continue for a while, as Rowling was busy with the short conversation with Snape. "Are you sure the brat-" Started said man, in his own unique drawling voice.

"That _brat_ happens to be my nephew, and I thought him everything he knows about defensive and offensive combat of any kind. He could take Filius on in a fight, no offence intended Filius, but I know how you fight; so does Juno," Was Jo's quick retort.

"Aunty Jo!" Juno had said, with a slightly blushing face.

"None taken," Filius replied, eyeing Juno, sizing the boy up.

Finally having enough of the noise, John had taken back the attention of the crowd and directed it back to his Avatar. After that, John had, through Jo explained how the dueling would work. The students would be divided up by skill, not house, for later on as to who would fight them. This would be done with a tournament, as matches would take place to determine this, and through process of elimination would get the different tiers that the students would belong in. They would not forever be limited to these same teirs, and if someone had gone up - or gotten worse - they would move accordingly as the club progressed.

It wasn't perfect, but it would get the job done.

After the explanation, John had wanted there to be a demonstration duel of each level of danger that they would be dealing with, as per the different levels of skill that the students showed. They had started off with the lowest, whereupon there was only the disarming jinx being shot and shields being the only things permitted. Then they demonstrated the most dangerous level, upon which Jo had stated the doubt of anyone getting to that level that year. It was one that was to use dangerous, and sometimes lethal methods to take out the opponent. Well, lethal if you didn't know how to deal with it.

That particular fight was between Filius and Juno, as per a challenge by Snape, and John was just childish enough to accept. After asking for Filius' input, of course; he agreed.

* * *

 **A/N:I'm evil, and it's late, so I'm going to leave it there. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **Ahem! Note to self: laughing like a madman hurts, and don't do it ever again.**

 **Next up will be the actual action, and less filler. I prommaybe.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Last time:**_

 _ **...**_ _Then they demonstrated the most dangerous level, upon which Jo had stated the doubt of anyone getting to that level that year. It was one that was to use dangerous, and sometimes lethal methods to take out the opponent. Well, lethal if you didn't know how to deal with it._

 _That particular fight was between Filius and Juno, as per a challenge by Snape, and John was just childish enough to accept. After asking for Filius' input, of course; he agreed._

Chapter 5

Filius and Juno now stood opposite each other, Filius was in the position of the standard dueling pose. It allowed for a wide range of spells to be cast easily, with the area of which the area was able to be moved in. There was also the advantage of being in a very wide stance, so as it was both harder to be moved, and easier to dodge incoming spells.

For Filius, it also had the added benefit of not having the normal disadvantage of being stagnant, it is still easy for him to move about.

Juno, however, had taken a starting position not too dissimilar to that of the tp martial arts techniques. There was a slight discomfort shown by everyone present, and it was from the animal that Juno was trying to emulate; Juno looked like a snake about to strike from the way he was positioned. His 'wand' was in his striking hand.

Before they began, Jo had started off with announcing the rules of the engagement, "In this demonstration there are very few rules, unlike the previous five. The only banned spells are those the ministry considers illegal, but not including those you are permitted to use by the ministry. As for the rules on fighting itself, fight as if it is for your life. If you are knocked off the dueling platform and into the pretend 'lava', cannot fight any longer, or are unconscious, you lose."

Then, she had raised the shield that she had used for the last two matches, one that had covered the entire permitted dueling area and a simple illusion charm on the floor to make it look like lava. After that she had simply said, "Fight!" Upon which the duelers broke into action. Well, Filius did. Juno was patiently letting Filius have a 'turn'. The man in question had started off with a simple stunner, which Juno had let it reach him.

But Juno didn't go down. Instead, he had reflected the curse back against Filius. Filius was momentarily surprised, before he had dodged the incoming fire. Then, Juno had started in on his own assault. He started off with normal combat spells, and charms, to which Filius though was suspicious. It was easy at first for Filius to shield against or dodge the incoming fire, but within that ease come complacency.

Despite the diminutive professor's character, he had fallen to his own thoughts that he could overcome the boy in front of him. Little did he know that it was John's plan for this to happen.

When John felt that Filius was complacent enough, and had started to fire back very quickly as per his prerogative, Juno did something none - other than those made of Blacklight material - expected of him.

Juno had turned invisible under the constant barrage of various spells headed in his direction. Then, he jumped up with his enhanced strength, and caught ahold of the roof by digging some hastily-morphed claws into it. Since he was under the constant barrage of spells by the professor, no-one noticed the sound of the claws entering into the roof.

Sense the shield only consisted of four walls, floor to ceiling, what Juno did was possible. Because Juno did not want to kill the professor, he had kept to using magic so that the professor could defend himself properly, what with the way that the wasted energy in the spells cast gave off an identifiable light. But John also wanted to make a point.

* * *

The conclusion John had come to through his experiments was that magic and mundane tech were far more superior together than alone. Sure, either could accomplish a goal with their own means, but it was far easier if they were combined. It was why John used Em so much. It was very versatile, and very abundant considering that he could duplicate it. The only reason why there might be problems when using it with tech was that it wasn't in its purest form, and was tainted by the 'personality' of another being; in other words, it was in tune with a specific 'magical orientation'.

That brought up another interesting tidbit, in that unlike what the magical populace thought, there was not just a 'Dark' or 'Light' leaning. No, there was an entire kaleidoscope of colours, and sometimes literally. When John had learned how to see these magical 'auras', he had been puzzled to find that the purest form of magic - Element M - was not white when he had looked at it. Instead, it was an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colours. When he had looked at others, they had varying colours, all from the whitest of white, blackest of black, and a smattering of varying colours.

It had begged the question of how the chaotic and unorderly looking Em could possibly be compatible with the orderly and very logic-based tech. When John had observed the interaction, it appeared as though the Em had adapted to the very logical based tech, so that they complimented instead of destroy each other. When it had been 'tainted', it hadn't been able to adapt.

Those findings suggested that if magic in its purest form could adapt, then it was in some form or fashion alive.

Alas, an author digressed and readers had forgotten about a fight that was taking place, that normally would only last a minute at most.

* * *

Filius had casted a revealing charm, one meant to reveal life signes of those that were invisible, and it was then that Juno had made his next move. He had dropped down from the ceiling of the Great Hall, and then had landed - roughly - behind Filius while he had taken a step forward. The impact had disrupted Filius' balance, and the boy had taken advantage of this, by pushing the man forward.

Said man had landed roughly, and had then wasted no time in turning over and had thrown a cutting curse, a favourite in real combat; it was easy and quick to cast with devastating results if it struck. That particular curse was only allowed in official dueling because it was the same as if the target had been spliced, and thus fairly easy for a healer to take care of, with both the pieces present. There was no need for there to be a search and rescue of missing body parts.

Filius had thrown two of them, with deadly accuracy, and had hit both of Juno's arms. Despite the arms being made of very strong material, namely of Blacklight infected matter, and very dense, it still gave way to the powerful curses. Juno's arms had just fallen off of his frame at where the curses struck, as he had moved forward.

Juno had turned a frowning face to where his arms were, while Filius had been slightly disturbed that Juno hadn't been yelling in pain as what most professional duelist would have. He had gotten up, and was unaware of the green faces of the younger students, the gasps by many, and the slight alarm by those not in-the-know about what the particular curse was. The damage was repairable.

Poppy, in particular, only had disapproval upon her face in regards to what Filius did. The only reason she was not angry was that it was a good opportunity to get her apprentice to do her first splinch repair. That, and Juno - the poor dear - wasn't screaming his discontent with the situation. To be fair, it could be argued that for older women, disapproval and anger were one and the same.

Juno had then looked up to the Charms Professor when the man had gotten to his feet, by jumping back up, no less. Still frowning, Juno had only said one word for what the Charms Professor had done, "Ow."

Filius had turned to the referee, assuming that the match was over. Surely, the boy could not continue fighting, having literally been disarmed. He had only the time to see the victorious smirk of the resident Potions Mater turn to a look of horror. He had whipped back around, and was met with a foot in the face.

Filius had come to one conclusion in that instance, before he had a broken nose and was thrown back, off of the platform. That conclusion was that he did not like kissing feet. He was ever-so glad that he had not joined the Dark Side of the previous war, as he would have had come to that conclusion a lot earlier than he would like. True, he would like to have never like to have ever _had_ to come to that conclusion, and take it as a given. Fate, it seemed, did not want him to live through the bliss of that ignorance.

He had made his way up to the platform again, and when he faced his partner, it was to the curious sight of the boy regrowing his arms.

* * *

Juno had, when he had kicked his opponent off of the platform, started in on regrowing his own arms. It was a difficult process, but only because he couldn't let his instincts repair them, and instead had to have John override them so that it looked like a metamorphmagus was regrowing them; it wouldn't do for it to look more abnormal than necessary.

Filius had gotten atop of the platform again by the time he had gotten about a third of the way through, and when he was done he had formed bone-like extrusions, to which he had snapped off. He held the weapons like knives, as that was what they were: bone knives.

But it was then that Juno's 'Auntie' had stepped up again on the platform, and said, "Professor Filius Flitwick loses, Mr. Juno Mercer wins as per the stated rules. As the good professor had not had the appropriate magics protecting himself against lava, he is disqualified. Had he cast the rather complicated charm before the match began, this would not be so."

The two had approached the middle of middle of the platform, and had bowed again, as was customary of finishing an official duel. It was the polite thing to do, and showed that the two duelers respected each other. The only exception to this was if one was physically unable to do so, but that was only until they were able to at a later date. In fact, in polite society, it was considered quite rude if they had not done this a day after recovering even if it was some ten years later.

After Juno had banished his disregarded arms and bone knives, he had stepped off of the platform and to were the healers' station was set up, as was customary even if the duler did not have any injuries they knew of. Much could be missed by someone in regards to their own body, especially just after a combat situation.

Besides, John knew better than to piss off any type of medical professional, even if he was who he was.

* * *

John had taken the opportunity to instill a little more knowledge into the students before him. He did this through Jo, still standing upon the platform with the attention of all the students present, "Sense I am a teacher, I can't help but to turn this into an educational opportunity.

"I believe that all of the students here were given a lecture on the most dangerous duelists, the importance of not underestimating your opponent, and much more for the last few classes, yes?

"Well that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I had said a metamorph is so dangerous. Never piss one off, because if they know _how_ , they are never unarmed. Depending on their level of knowledge, they can't be rendered unconscious by any normal means either, such as a stunner. It was one of the main reasons why Professor Flitwick didn't stand much of a chance against Mr. Mercer, not that that says much of the Professor's skill. He is one of the most skilled duelers in all of Magical Europe.

"But everyone makes mistakes. Juno had made the mistake of giving away the fact that he could withstand a stunner, and he had hesitated at the start of the match to name a few. Then again, he is experienced, and much of the mistakes he has made are understandable. That doesn't mean they won't be corrected.

"On the other hand, Professor Flitwick had made the mistake of underestimating his enemy, on multiple occasions. To be fair, it wasn't much his fault. After-all, how rare is it to be facing a metamorph? We are approximately four hundred in this hall at the moment, and there are only about - as far as I know - four metamorphs in the room, including Juno and myself. That's a one in a hundred chance, but still possible.

"The only clue he had that showed Mr. Mercer as one, was that Mr. Mercer was not affected by the stunner that hit him.

"Then, there was the assumption that Mr. Mercer could not fight without his arms. He should have bound him before turning his back on his opponent, instead of letting him get close enough to use mundane fighting methods to get him off of the platform and into the 'lava'.

Jo had finished with, "That being said, let us all give a round of applause to Professor Flitwick and Mr. Mercer for their wonderful demonstration!" The hall had erupted into applause for the amazing display.

* * *

Harry had gotten his wish, and had been able to duel that night. It appeared as though only the first round of testing would go on in determining which level they belonged to. It was fun watching the other duels take place, and it wasn't long - to him - before he had gotten to duel. He had been paired up against Draco Malfoy, a slytherin that he did not particularly like on general principal of the boy's reputation, but would be civil to if just not to make an enemy. It wasn't like the other boy had done anything against Harry.

The boy had started off with a spell to summon a snake to him, and Harry had grinned before he had said one word. "Anubis," he stated calmly, and then Harry's constant shadow had jumped up onto the platform, growling. Seeing the look on the boy's face, and hearing what the snake was saying, Harry took pity on them, "Do you really want to bring familiars and animals into this duel, Mr. Malfoy?" It was stated formally, and plainly, just like how he had heard Professor McGonagall speak to some students.

Without a word, Malfoy had removed the snake of his own accord, and Harry had replied with, "Good choice," before he had ordered Anubis off the platform. Professor Sinistra - the one overlooking their duel - had looked faintly amused by the entire ordeal, and had said nothing. The duel continued in a rather normal way after that, and Harry had stayed back to watch the rest of the duels, unintentionally soaking up extra bits of knowledge about dueling from doing so.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I'll leave it there. Hope you all enjoyed it, even more than I did making it! Please leave a review, as the best part of writing is looking forward to and reading the feedback I get from you all.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

An interesting constant that John had found throughout the multiverse - for lack of a better term - was Em. Sure the human race is very common for as long as he had seen, but it wasn't a constant. In fact, he had found a universe domain that had only the existence of purple. It should have been impossible for various logical reasons, but it still existed. It was the universe of purple, and nothing else was there. Only purple.

It was so odd that John dared not to venture into the sector, and was content to leave it be. He had no clue of what would happen to a being such as him if he were to enter into it.

And though the verse had only purple, a colour - a physical description and not normally a noun, it still had Em. In fact, the chaotic nature of Em was - to his estimation - was the only reason that the domain had not collapsed in on itself, as it had not any logic that would sustain its existence. After all, conventionally in order for something to perceive the colour purple - any colour really - they needed to be able to perceive the electromagnetic spectrum in the three hundred THz and one-micrometer range. But since the universe only had purple, then the electromagnetic spectrum didn't really exist properly. Light didn't exist, so there was no way for the purple to ever be seen.

It was like if an entire civilisation was blind, does colour exist to them?

Probably not.

Back to the topic at tendril, John had thought interesting that Em was the only real constant throughout the multiverse that he had explored. It had always existed in one form or another, and from this John had deduced it to be the very essence of reality. He deduced it to be essential for a sector to be born.

From this John had started experimenting more with the limits of Em. He had rediscovered the uses that he had already known about, but then he had started learning things that he had not yet known. For example, he had been able to duplicate Em before, but now he was able to create it.

With duplication, he had to have one part Em, and another part of some other matter in order to turn that other matter into Em. Hence, duplicate the Em. With creating Em, he had to do something slightly different. He had to make a pocket of nothingness, whereupon there was not any Em.

Despite his original readings and assumptions of Dark Space, the area separating the pockets of universes themselves, it was not empty. No, John had missed, in all of his very different readings of the space, the presence of two things that were very important. One of them was antimatter, to which John was very lucky to have never run into any of it thus far. The other was what was of most importance to the topic at tendril, which was Element M.

It was when John found the chaotic element within the outside that he had decided it was not an element at all. Surely, if elements did not naturally reside outside of a viable - it was the purple-verse that led John to use that word - universe, then it would make sense that Em was not an element at all. Instead, John had decided to look into the possibility of it being the fabric of reality itself.

But that begged the question of how it was in Dark Space, as that was the point at which there was no real reality. Perhaps through - again - its chaotic nature, it was able to withstand what most elements could not, and that was existing without existing. John decided to look into it more.

There was a more dangerous thing within Dark Space that John was horrified to learn of, though. It turned out that there was a distinct abundance of antimatter within Dark Space. This was a problem as if it had come into contact with any of his things - or himself - then John didn't really know what would happen. Within one of the universes, depending on the rules, regulations, and laws of that universe - to which John had just called the Astronomical Constant, something that was once a theory of being a random number to which would dictate what the universe would appear like - John knew that there would be a very large explosion.

The explosion from antimatter and matter meeting was based on the Law of Conservation of Energy, wherein the two opposing forces would cancel out, but the energy they had would not be cancelled, just change form. For example, a gramme of antimatter added to a gramme of matter would result in two grammes of energy. Instantly. It was another thing that proved Einstein's equation of E=MC2 .

It was a lot of energy, but it didn't guarantee that the energy would only result in electric charge - a common misconception. There was another form of energy that existed, and though it was only theoretical as it had yet to be measured, it was assumed that the energy released from the (anti)matter would be equally distributed to all of the different forms; it was also converted damn near instantly, hence the explosion.

Another property of antimatter within a universe that made it so dangerous, and possibly rare, was how it was attracted to its opposite. Well, to be fair, they were both attracted to each other. In that instance, the age old saying "opposites attract" rang true. It was also a very destructive relationship, and John was reminded of his human parents from ages - literally - past.

From what John found within Dark Space, it appeared as though the antimatter was actively avoiding all of the matter that John had brought into Dark Space. It appeared as though it was reversed in Dark Space, in that the age old saying of "opposites attract" was reversed.

From this, John had hastened his research into better ways of transferring the energy within the antimatter and matter. John had no way of knowing just how long it would take to make any sort of headway in that field, but he would make due as it was with what he had.

It was in this venture that John had an accident. He hadn't the foggiest idea of how it had happened, but he was impressed by the result nonetheless.

An entire new Sector was born at that time. The data he had received from that fact alone was astounding, and from it, he knew what happened during the development of a universe. It was any physicist's wet dream, and he had been able to see one happen. Better yet, he was able to get even more in-depth data from a conveniently nearby science vessel going from SZ0 to SZ4. Unfortunately, that same vessel wasn't able to stop and continue collecting data as it didn't pass through the Baby-Verse. John was already inside the Verse, though it was very difficult for any of his Avatars to live through the radiation that came after such a powerful event.

And powerful it was, as after one took into account the definition of power, and how long it took for there to be nothing, then everything came into existence. John briefly wondered if he had enough data to determine the efficiency of creating universes. It would be fun to figure out. Well, fun for a being like him. He doubted even a virtual life form would enjoy the sheer data analysis that was required to do such a thing.

Eventually, he decided that his presence had already changed the start, by having the radiation effect his Avatars to begin with. So, with that thought in mind, he decided to outright start using the radiation as food to keep up with the rapidly expanding 'Verse.

Because the immortal sapient virus commonly known as John was a little impatient, he had decided to "accelerate" the flow of time in the newborn 'Verse. Yes, John was impatient. As much as he might have liked analysing data, he still did not like what amounted to a normal person as watching grass grow. It wasn't like there was much data to be gained from measuring everything there was to be measured from the grass every second, too.

With the accelerated time, John was able to observe the way the universe developed. It was a very beautiful thing that John was able to see, and he had seen it from every possible perspective, from every place that his Avatars were.

Which were many, many different places. In fact, he had Avatars from the centre of the universe event all the way to the edges. He decided to leave the Avatars where they were in an observation post type of layout. He would monitor them, and would use them for his various purposes as time went on.

The acceleration factor for the observation of the new universe was, if John's estimation was to be believed, about one hundred thousand years for every few seconds that John experienced. So, really, when the cycles started it wasn't really his fault that he hadn't been able to stop them. He hadn't the reaction time to stop the Reapers from harvesting the intelligent races of Before.

To be fair, though, he wasn't sure if he had wanted to, as this Sector was exactly - as far as he could tell - the same as his original universe. He was happy to note that the Reapers were confined to only one galaxy, though. If he had killed off all of the Reapers at an early date, before the time in which he had come to exist, he would have drastically changed history. That, and if he were to allow the previous Sapient races to exist beyond their extinction date, then he couldn't be positive that his favourite species - humans - would come to be.

He couldn't allow that to happen, as they were his favourite. John was quite aware of that bias, but he didn't care; he was once human, and they were his grandfather race. As in his father race was the virus named Mercer, and the one to make that virus was a human named Dr. Mercer. That was also the reason why John chose to have his last name as Mercer, in tribute to his patriarchal ancestry, as was the human tradition.

By the time John was able to sync the time perception of the universes, it was about time for another harvest, by John's standards. If the current harvest were to ask why he didn't help the previous ones, he came up with the half-truth to tell them that he wasn't from their galaxy. If they knew that excuse was false, then he would tell them that he didn't want to mess with the events of time, and point out the fact that they wouldn't be alive if he had done so. Sure it would save billions, possibly trillions, but it would be at the expense of trillions more never existing.

He would also point out the fact that if he had saved the Protheans, then they would enslave the rest of the races down the line. Unless he drastically changed the Protheans. Again, he would be drastically changing the history. He thought that History, in general, was sacred, and was not to be trifled with; even if it was through the simple act of burning books.

The first thing that John did was go and see the Geth when he was fully synced with the local time. The Geth came in a close second in John's favourites, as they were created, like him, but more so of the fact that John was the closest thing to a biological version of the A.I. species. He quite liked AI, having created them before, as they were quite versatile when it came to technology. He, himself, was quite versatile when it came to biology.

There was also the bonus of John and the Geth being empathetic to each other's social norms. That was to say, John was able to interface on a technological level - in the virtual existence that the Geth reside - and the Geth were able to interface on the biological level by way of nanites.

Before he went to meet the Geth, he reflected on what his automated systems had collected in the observation Avatars. There was approximately one per solar system, ever since they were formed so long ago.

Apparently, whenever a race had become advanced enough, regardless of the species, they had tried to investigate the strange objects that were the observation Avatars. 'Course all of their attempts failed, regardless of what they tried. John had had the foresight to create automated defences embedded in the very DNA of the observation posts. Whatever they tried, had failed to work. Even the Leviathans had tried to use their "natural dominance" ability to try and take control of the strange space organism that predated even them, the first sapient organics - to their knowledge - in the galaxy. It had lead everyone to believe that he predated them, and they would be right about that. Well, in a sense anyway.

He was amused with the humans, when they tried to investigate them, even more so when the recent group "Cerberus" tried to conduct experiments with his Avatars. His automated programs had been brutal in response to their attempts. Eventually, his Avatars were dubbed a useless, harmless anomaly to every species. Unless, of course, you attacked one.

Honestly, what could an omnipotent being, chained to only one planet, actually do to an omnipresent being? Nothing, really.

He had managed to kill the slaver, though. It appeared that an omnipotent being could be killed by an omnipresent being. He hadn't bothered to consume the bratty quasi-immortal. He did not want to have that voice mixed with all of the others. Besides, he was already immortal, why would he want to add whatever it was the other had had? There was no point. And, besides, that would be boring to have that power, all the power of that universe.

He compared it to having cheated in a video game; there would be no real point to life after that, and would get very boring.

The Reapers, a cyborg race with the original made from the corpses of the Leviathans, their indirect creators, had been based on what they could find out about his Avatars.

Apparently, his observation posts were revered even higher than a Prothean beacon, they were just less rare than the beacons. It would make it easier for John to take over a Reaper, seeing as they were based on what John himself had designed.

From his observations of past Harvests, John would explain the Reaper's work as the old illustrations of a Dr. Seuss house, compared to John's architectural depiction of a house.

It was cute, but not nearly close to efficient or natural.

This was a very odd divergence from what his original Sector had been through. It went to show one of the many things that can change from merely observing something.

In short, John had gone through the millennia worth of automatically collected data, and observations, while his first contact vessel was en route.

In his original time, the Geth were a very paranoid race, with redundancy as one of their priorities. They were right to think this seeing as shortly after the race of digital life had been created, they were forsaken by their creator race. Their creators had tried to commit genocide, and murder all of the Geth programs. They failed, and with great pain, the Geth had driven the creators off of the home planet. Further fueled by their fear of organic beings, the Geth had then shot down every ship - civilian or otherwise, they could have been a trojan horse - identified as not of Geth origin.

But that only explained what John knew of the Geth's past, and what data John was able to collect. All of which was helpful to know for the future, when John planned to approach the Geth, but at that time it was useless as John had then changed his mind, and decided he wanted to introduce himself to the centre of Galactic space.

The Citadel was considered to be the centre of galactic commerce when in fact it was only one of seven in the galaxy. At the moment the most used, and active one, was the third in a series of seven. John found it amusing that every time a race had become advanced enough to be space faring, they thought that the citadel they found was the only one in the galaxy. And, each time that they did, they always dubbed it to be the centre of galactic civilisation.

As John's First Contact Vessel neared his destination, he mused on how to present himself.

* * *

 **A/N: It has been a while since I have updated anything of this, and I had originally meant part of this to be another one shot, but it found a way into the main story. But, yeah, happy fun times.**

 **And how do you think John should present himself this time? How do you think he should play this?**

 **Please review, I love reading whatever it is that you all have to say. Maybe I'll even respond to your review.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It didn't take long after both John's accidental creation of a universe and his first hosting of a duelling tournament that he started to hear the sounds. They were strange sounds and did not sound random. No, they sounded like unintelligible whispering. It was also frustrating to him that he could never find the source.

It was not long after _that_ , that the first victim turned up - in the form of a cat.

* * *

There was a crowded area of students in the hallway Jo had been walking past, headed to her classroom. This had piqued John's interest, and he had thought that perhaps there was a fight after the period just past. It was entirely possible, and if that was so, then John wanted his Avatar to intervene sooner rather than later so that no-one would get hurt.

With a determined stride, Jo had made her way to the crowd of students. She made it in time to hear the end of Argus Filch's accusation and further threat to Harry and his friends. "If you know what is good for you, Argus, you will do no such thing. And I hope, for your sake, you did not just threaten a student." She glared at the man for a moment, and when he was sufficiently cowed, she further examined the writing on the wall. She purposefully ignored the floating cat for the moment.

The writing was written in blood, and since there was a cat nearby, it could be assumed that the blood came from there. So it was not human blood, which was good. Written in this blood was,

"The chamber of secrets has been opened

enemies of the heir … beware".

However, that was not too important at the moment. What was important was that the little ones were gawking at the scene. "Everyone to your commons," Jo said, and an old voice had echoed what she said from behind her. Jo turned to the sight of a few teachers arriving. John wondered how they knew to arrive there. Perhaps they were walking by just as Jo was, and happened upon the scene? It seemed unlikely.

When Harry and his two friends went to leave too, Jo had pointed to them and said, "Except for you three." Again, Jo was echoed by the same old voice of Dumbledore's. Jo raised a fine eyebrow and smiled to which Dumbledore returned the sentiment of humour.

It was then that Harry felt the need to interject his own claims by stating his innocence of all of this. Jo had only said, "I believe you."

Startled, Harry had asked, "You do?" Jo, or to the students 'Professor Rowling', nodded. That lead Harry to continue with, "Why?"

"Because my brother says that you are a terrible liar. I'm inclined to believe him," came her reply. It took a moment for the information she said to process in the minds of those present before their reactions became outwardly visible. The only ones that did not wear a face of surprise or disbelief at the news were Luna and Jo herself.

John assumed that Luna had already figured it out. It was like the brilliant girl to piece together the clues so seamlessly.

* * *

It was just before the holidays and the chamber issue had still yet to have been solved. It was frustrating to John, because he had become attached to the ancient castle that he had sent his children to learn, and where he now worked. He did not want to see the ancient place of learning to be closed - he thought it a crime to close an institute of learning.

He was glad that it was coming close to the holidays, though. With fewer people during the holidays, there would be a better chance that it would not come into question why there were people there that no one knew.

Even better was the fact that Kevin and Harry were coming home for the holiday, and John planned on giving them an experience that they would never forget as soon as they made it back. John was excited to show them. As it was, he had to get it all ready.

* * *

Unrelated to what John was attempting on his son's world, and long ago in the Sector's relative time, John had had a presence on the planet for a while. It was long enough to go through an entire human lifetime or two.

Now, he masqueraded as an old man, an old man that saw no point in venturing outside of his house any longer. He was content to let that Avatar "die" and to create a new one, somewhere else to take up his place on the planet.

So it was understandable that John had not bothered to ward off the four sisters that had taken to using his land - so deep in the forest was it - to play in. John didn't know where the sisters came from, but he did know that they did not live in the area - he was very far away from any civilisation.

They had an odd notion of play, as they had only scouted the area, and having determined a certain lack of Grimm had then set about in a circle. They sat cross-legged and had practised in relaxation every day for a week.

He had not seen them again until the season passed. Only then did they reappear, but this time they did not practice in the arts of tranquillity as before, sometimes a primitive form of yoga. No, this time the four had gone to where his garden area was. He watched as the four had puzzled over the very decrepit-looking sorry excuse of a garden. After discussing amongst themselves for a time, one of the four had suggested the idea of caring for the garden to pass the time.

Apparently, their parents were Hunters, and they had to camp out in the area with their parents because of their job. They did not know if anyone owned the property, and since they had already used the land they thought it only fair to repay the debt they created by using it without permission. So, for fun and to pass the time the four girls had tended to the decrepit garden. Eventually, the garden was something to be proud of.

Soon the season turned from spring to summer, and with it, the girls had changed their focus from the gardening - being content with the way it had turned out - to playing. It was only then that John questioned them. They were having fun in the summer air, and as John questioned them, one of the four had started giggling. When John asked what was so funny, the girl replied that she thought it funny that the man experienced the world through such a small window when there was an entrance next to him.

John supposed that it was a fairly odd thing. So, with that prompting, John had exited the hovel he had made for the first time in a century.

The girls had to leave, though, but they promised to return to their new friend and old sanctuary sometime. It was another season that passed before they had returned, and this time, it was the four girls that quizzed John. They asked after his past and his life. He had told them that he didn't have any interesting stories, being who he was and not having much. They then pointed out how much he really had, the old man in the shack he had made.

Time passed in a cycle for them after that, every season they would return and they would greet each other warmly. Years passed before John had asked why they helped him so, and they replied that they did it simply because they wanted to. They wanted to help people, they had said.

John had gotten an idea after that; they girls were old enough now to be venturing out into the world, and they wanted to go out to help people. So, John had gifted the four maidens with something to help them in their travels.

With great care, John had taken a fair amount of Em and had instilled it in each of the four maidens, tailored to their own unique name sake and their life time. If they die, the Em and subsequently that power would transfer to the next viable host.

The power he gifted them was aligned for each of their names. They were named from oldest to youngest Winter, Spring, Summer, and finally Fall. John thought it poetic that they were named after the seasons, and that they had always visited him every season.

The girls - now madins - had thanked John for his generous gift, and before they left on their various trips had promised to always return, at least once a year. The madins did not realise this, but their promise had been enforced by the very young - now sentient - magic that they had been gifted with. So, now even if the Em - the source of their power - changed host, the new host would become the new madin and would visit John.

It was for this reason that John became slightly worried when Amber, the current Fall Maiden, did not return to see him. He had then started seeking her out when he felt that the power of Fall split into two unequal parts. Normally that would mean that the poor girl's life had split into two, and had separated. John hoped, for her sake, that that was not true. He would have to kill her if she did it herself, as there was only one way that John knew of that she could have done that alone, or it would mean she was in mortal danger if another had done it to her.

The Old Wizard sighed, a physical manifestation of John's emotion on the topic at hand, and then the Avatar set off to find the girl. John dreaded what he might find. He quite liked that girl, and would be saddened by her death; she was like a daughter to him, as were all of the maidens.

* * *

 **A/N: I had noticed that there wasn't a RWBY cross yet, so I thought I'd put one in there somewhere. I might return to that one later, depending on where my muse takes me.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

One of John's most favoured form of reentry was not through means that normal beings would use. No, John's most favoured form of reentry was by way of orbital drop and in his opinion, he didn't have nearly as many excuses to use it as he would like. That was why he tended to be fairly happy whenever he managed to find an excuse to use it.

It was also why John utterly loathed the normal docking procedures that races insisted on having, as the comparison John couldn't help but make made him irritable. He went through them anyway, as it wouldn't do to call extra attentions to himself at the time. Then again, his mere presence would garner the attentions of everything he passed, including the nanites and Keepers that worked throughout the Citadel.

The Keepers were an interesting race, as they were once a free race of cyborgs. They had been fully biological at a time, but then they amplified their own bodies enough at one point that their entire race could be considered cyborgs. Then, the Harvest came, and the Keepers were subjected to indoctrination, and they now serve their various tasks in maintaining the Citadels in the Galaxy.

John's Avatar sighed, and John took in every minor detail that was different from what he remembered of the Citadel of his original Sector. Eventually, John decided that it was time for him to contact the Council, and tell them what was going to happen whether they liked it or not.

John decided to go for a more stealthy approach to getting to where he wanted to go. Without much fanfare - seeing as there was no possible way for the races on the Citadel to detect him - John managed to reach the Counsellor's chambers. He was only mildly surprised to see a session taking place, and after hacking further into the Council's tech, John had determined what was going on.

There were the three councillors residing, and then there was representation from the human species as well. That, however, was unimportant. The star of the even went to the man represented in a hologram named Saren. Saren was a Council Specter, and this was his trial to determine whether or not he was a traitor to the Council Races. He was, from what John had found.

Interestingly enough, he was also fairly close to another of his ships; John doubted that he would need it, though. John had just then come up with a plan that he hoped would prove enjoyable. When he deemed everything ready, John acted.

Through his various experimentations with Em, John had found out why it would be useful to go through the effort to turn the normally gaseous or liquid Em into part liquid crystal and crystal. It was one of the easiest ways to open and maintain a portal between two very distant points in space or - John was sure of but unwilling to test - time.

Before that helpful part of knowledge came into play, John had first de-cloaked his Avatar so as to be seen in the visible spectrum. One of John's allies in Starfleet had once commented on the fact that john only had one colour in his armoured form, and to answer that John had set out to add some colour in his armours. After-all, it wouldn't do to be confused for a Collector of this Sector, nor any other dark coloured chitinous-ed creature.

Not that that mattered at the moment because as it was, John had chosen to have his based off of what John had once seen in media: Slenderman.

With an impeccable suit, stark white skin, no face, and very tall, John struck a very intimidating image. He towered over the holographic image he appeared in front of, and his appearance had silenced any conversation that had been going on. Apparently, one of the councillors had quick reflexes, and security had burst into the room before anyone had said a word in surprise. That wasn't to say that no-one had exclamations of surprise.

Some of those exclamations came in the form of a gun pulled out and pointed at him, or in the case of some of the biotics, a readied position. Mindful of the various offensive measures pointed in his direction, but also aware of the fact that it wouldn't do much or anything substantial to him, John continued on with his plan to mess with people.

Using some rather nasty tricks he picked up from the Silent Assassins combined with the stabilisation and tunnelling effect from crystal and liquid crystal Em, John had reached through the hologram to reach Saren and pull him through so that he was in the room with everyone else. He wasn't done there, though.

Within the Hologram, John had created an exact replica of one of the Angels. After all, he could do with one of his allies. Since whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel, the image that John made in the hologram became an Angel. It helped that John had added plenty enough power into the image so that the holographic Silent Assassin became a stone statue of an Angel.

He had started up a telepathic conversation with his newly-created/revived ally and were discussing how it could be that a Weeping Angel was able to be made in this universe, but not transferred - in the physical sense - to the Sector. John was good at multitasking, though, so as he was having an in-depth intellectual telepathic conversation with his ally he was also taking care of the rather angry and confused Spectre he pulled through a hologram. Then again, the Angel that was made by way of replicating the image was more like an Avatar was to John, to the Angels

All of this was not done silently, however. There were gunshots from the various security agents or the occasional biotic effect from a biotic.

What was interesting to note was the fact that the guns did next to nothing to John's Avatar, and the various biotic offensive effects only momentarily distorted the flesh of the active Avatar. The reason why the arm's damage was negligible was that the guns would take a small shaving off of an ammunition block, and fire it at a fraction of the speed of light. This accounted for a lot of force, as speed accounted for twice the potency of the mass, and it would easily take any normal person out. Since John took his life force or survivability from the mass of his own biology and not of functioning organs, John would just allow the metal shavings to pass through him and not absorb the force that would otherwise in any way injure him. It was also for this reason that John was able to withstand any biotic effects.

Biotics, in the noun form, were beings able to use Element Zero - Eezo for short - to manipulate gravity fields. Eezo was, in fact, a primitive - or rather specified - form of Em, but that was beside the point. Biotics in the verb form, however, were the feats that biotics were able to pull off from manipulating those gravity fields. For example, someone might be able to increase or decrease the local gravity in a specific area, or to warp the gravity fields on a specific surface so that there were conflicting forces and it would be torn apart. The last one was the most popular form of biotic used, but it was useless against John.

It was understandable considering that when part of John's Avatar was torn, it was immediately repaired. So, really it was like shooting water for the biotics, and as for the guns, it was like shooting a cloud in comparison. Eventually, a cease-fire was called, and the hail of bullets stopped in fear of hitting the esteemed Specter supposedly held hostage by John. Well, that was the reason for most of the non-humans to stop shooting. The humans stopped their fire because it was obviously not working.

John forced the Turian named Saren onto the ground, to which the avian humanoid grunted by the force he was forced onto the ground with. As John held the Specter down securely, tendrils sprouted from his back and started to check the legally lawless man for weapons. It wouldn't do for him to attempt an escape. Finally satisfied that he collected everything, John had morphed his biomass into that of cuffs. They were old school, but they worked. It was only then that John started to speak, completely cutting off whatever it was the people around him were saying, "Saren Arterius, you are under arrest for murder, conspiracy to commit galactic wide genocide, aiding and abetting a galactic terrorist organisation, and worst of all tampering with a stellar outpost. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and WILL be used against you in your upcoming trial. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Seeing as your assets are now frozen, I suggest you take that route. If you choose not to have an attorney present or choose to represent yourself, that is your prerogative.

"Now get up, or I will drag you up." To make his visage even more monstrous and creepy looking, John had stuck with the Slender theme, and had shaped his mouth as such; his mouth was jagged with his throat having holes in them, and tendrils flickering about lazily.

As per John's prediction, the man had protested, "You can't do this! I'm a Council Specter! Do you know who I am?!" On and on the man's protests went in this stream, all the while John didn't care. He hoisted the avian man up and made him stand. More for dramatic effect than anything else, John had then said, "Link established, sending prisoner one million two-hundred thirty-three in three, two, one, prisoner sent." John waited for a moment after the rogue spectre disappeared, then, "Prisoner received."

"What just happened?" John recognised the speaker as (for the time being) Captain Anderson, and it was whispered to his subordinate, someone he recognised as Humanity's Ambassador, Udina. Everyone was standing dumbly staring at John, not knowing what to do.

So, John decided to relieve them of the burden of answering that question, "What just happened, Captain Anderson of the Human Navy, is that I have taken one Saren Arterius into my custody for various crimes against my - and subsequently yours, even if you don't realise it - species.

"It was determined that your courts were too corrupt to charge the Turian properly, let alone make a proper investigation, and so we have stepped in to investigate. Upon further investigation, it was determined that Mr. Arterius might not be mentally culpable, and so we will treat him if that is the case."

"This is unacceptable! The council have laws, and as someone belonging to a citadel species, Specter Saren is protected by these laws! You have no right to infringe on Citadel business, whatever you think you are." The protest came from the Turian Councillor, to which John was not surprised in the least.

Before either the Turian - to which John did not bother with placing a name to the face - continued or John to speak, the Asari Councillor spoke, "I believe what my college meant to ask was: Why not leave the matter in the councillor's jurisdiction, after all, this is a Council matter."

John favoured the mono-gender with a smile, then even going so far as to morph his facial features into that of a smooth visage again, before he had spoken, "Firstly and simply put, you do not have the technology to reverse the indoctrination that my species has detected. Then there is the issue of showing that you are rather corrupt when it comes to Spectres. Thirdly, my government is charging Mr. Arterus for crimes against Sapient Life itself, not just Council Races. Lastly, it was decided that it was apparent that this Galaxy had forgotten who truly owned it. This very station is proof enough of that.

"It's understandable, considering that the deal was made long before the oldest race amongst yourselves had even gazed upon the stars in wonder. We understand that other races do not tend to have such long memories as Blacklight. I have chosen to overlook your act of hostility earlier for these reasons, as well.

"It was also decided to remind the occupants of this galaxy who the Creators are. For this reason, we will be remilitarizing this small county of space, as well as absorbing your governments into ours until such a time as it is considered reformed.

"Does all of that answer your questions, Asari Councillor?"

*LB*

 **A/N: It occurs to me that John is a very deus ex machina type of character. I probably won't be changing this, as in practicality John really doesn't have any serious adversaries that I can come up with. I feel like if John were to ever go along in a different manner than DeM, it would be more like a game to John than anything else, solely for his amusement. If John got tired of the game, then he would just fall back into a deus ex machina role to end it quickly.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

When John creates a space ship, he follows a very simple ranking system on how to designate the different types for different purposes, as creating a jack-of-all-trades ship would not be all that efficient. Effective, maybe, but not efficient.

First would be a Science vessel or other "civilian" types. They didn't have any weaponry and were limited to sensors and defensive shielding. They were rather weak for this reason and were only used for safe things. One up from that was a Surveyor type. A Surveyor was a science vessel but was able to investigate areas that would require defensive weaponry. Normally it was in-between a gunship and a cruiser in armament and size, but it is not suited for assault, only defence. A Surveyor is in essence, a military-oriented science vessel.

A Scout was a dependency, which meant that it had a limited range that it could reach without needing to refuel or return to a base of operations to resupply. A Scout's speed was emphasised over its weaponry, it had the best possible sensors to scout an area, and is normally was a stealth vessel. A fighter, another dependency, was the same size as a scout, but more focused on a combat rather than a recon role. As dependencies and rather small crafts, these war machines could be carried inside of another ship. Dependencies also did not take strength from one-on-one confrontations, but more from swarming tactics.

Gunships were small and fast and were normally equipped for the defence of a fleet. They were the space-faring versions of a destroyer. A Cruiser was a faster warship, larger than a Gunship, but less heavily armed than a battleship. Its size allowed for long missions and was cheaper to make than a Frigate. A Cruiser was superior to a Gunship in some ways, but in other ways, it was better to have a Gunship ready.

A Frigate was a warship with a mixed armament, and in terms of firepower and size was just below that of the ship of the line; it was the mix of a Gunship and a battleship. A Dreadnought was a normal battleship that is larger, and a very high damage and defence capability; it was the elite version of a battleship. A Frigate would win against a Gunship and Cruiser, but would loose against a normal battleship in power and defence, let alone a Dreadnought.

A Carrier was used as a portable base for smaller vessels like the Scout and the Fighter types. However, it did not only serve to house the Fighters and Scouts, it also held supplies for a fleet. It is large enough to allow for a frigate or smaller to dock inside of a hangar for repairs and resupply. If a Dreadnought and a Carrier were to go head-to-head, a Carrier would normally win if it was fully loaded at the time with its Fighters, otherwise, they would be evenly matched. Really, it would be up to whomever it was that commanded the vessels. Both types were capable of destroying a Frigate.

A Capital Ship was an exceptionally large warship such as a Dreadnought or Carrier. It was normally the flagship of a fleet and was the hardest ship to destroy within that fleet. It had the potential to take out a normal Carrier or a battleship.

When John abides by these types of vessels, and he takes into account that other races tend to do so, he was able to come up with a very simple ranking system to determine different threat levels. It started at zero as nearly anything could take that ship out, and it could barely be able to withstand space itself. The prerequisite for being considered at zero was that the species had to have colonised their own solar system, if at all possible. The negative numbers were reserved for a populace that was pre-spaceflight, at negative one being that of a craft unable to withstand the long-term effects of something like solar radiation. For example, he would consider the early twenty-first century and earlier for humans as being in the negatives, from his original sector.

Then came the part that would actually rate the threat level, and not just how technologically deprived the species was. This was determined through how much damage one fleet could do to another overall, as well as on an individual basis. On an individual level, a ship with a higher rating would be capable of killing ten ships of a lower rating before it was brought down. The overall threat was rated a little differently, however. Unlike how it was down to a pure kill to death ratio for the ships, it was based on how fast the species could reproduce, their technological advancement history in generations, lifespan, tactical history, rarity in the multiverse, total population - which was different from their rarity, and finally required surviving versus living conditions. And that was only the Combat rating of a species.

Really, what John did was stereotype a particular species, and dealing with that species as per that stereotype. It was very effective, especially when he came across a species that was determined to be too dangerous to other species to allow to live. It didn't happen often, but it did happen.

Redlight was one such species, headed by MOTHER, and as such did not possess the capability of sentience or sapience yet had a conquering ideology at its core. It was understandable really, as it was, in the end, nothing more than a weaponized virus.

John wondered how his species would be looked upon by others if they were to know his own species statistics. He wondered if they would look upon him in the same respects as a circle would a sphere, or if they were "above" him as a sphere would a circle.

Either way, he figured it wouldn't really matter.

John was trying his hardest not to step on anyone's toes, as the humans said. He was trying to look rather benevolent, and aside from his laissez-faire attitude in regards to technology, he didn't mind stepping in when he found something that gave him pause. He preferred a non-intrusive method of observing, but again something would give him cause to intervene because his self-imposed morals told him to.

The something that would give him pause, could even be a species that had its sole purpose of ending any other life. Now, John would take exception to this, as he was part of that "Other life" they would deem inferior. In fact, if a life's sole purpose was to end life and was unable to evolve to a state where they could reason, then it was normally one of the rare species that was deemed too dangerous to allow to live. Normally they would only be under quarantine, but sometimes genocide was the better - more logical - option.

These are some of the things that John likes to think of - among a very large amount of other things, sometimes simultaneously - when he did not require one hundred percent of his processing potential focused on one sole thing. Fortunately that almost never happened, and in fact, John took extra precautions so that it didn't happen. He learned his lesson from the aeroplane crash that nearly took out his entire airfield.

He had had to expand - and add more - "server farm" type organisms whose sole purpose was to add more processing power for the massive and expansive being that was John.

Since he was already at it, he had gone ahead and created extra backup memory storage for more redundancy. In fact, John went so far as to create entire galaxy's worth of these areas, and planets. Even the observation posts that had been in orbit around every single star in a single galaxy was not enough to sate his paranoia, as they were only automated - albeit highly sophisticated - monitoring platforms. That, and they were stuck in a separate timeline. Essentially, John wanted to make a local galaxy server so that if he had to change the flow of time in different timelines, then there would be backups locally to take care of the extra load.

All of this extra processing allowed for extra nonessential processes, to be able to drop at any given time, but to be used so as to not allow the processors to remain idle. After-all, there is always something worth thinking, but sometimes other efforts take priority. It's all well and good to expand on the philosophy of the art of war unless you were currently being shot at in a war.

The extra processing also allowed for him to realise that when he explored Dark Space, a place wherein there was absolutely nothing if you were to ignore the "floating" Universes comprised of both matter and - matter going "backwards" in duration - Antimatter, and Em, he was actually exploring both the ninth dimension and the zeroth dimension. The zeroth dimension was to represent the sheer nothingness whereupon the ninth dimension was unable to represent, despite the fact that the ninth dimension was supposed to hold the zeroth dimension.

The guard fell asleep, and prisoner zero escaped.

He was sure that the good Doctor he made - if he did say so himself - a good impression would appreciate that sentiment.

Luckily there was still a check and balance, wherein the tenth dimension would naturally shift the zeroth dimension back into place to repair the broken symmetry so that it could both not exist, and yet be ever present as it was wont to do. After all, the zeroth dimension had to be there in order for the first, and for that matter the rest, to exist. However, the zeroth dimension was reliant on the tenth dimension to stay put, to exist and not exist in its neutrality. Yet again, the tenth dimension was reliant on the lower dimensions to be present.

What was even odder, was that Em was almost acting as if it was a "physical" representation of the tenth dimension, acting upon the lower dimensions to hold it within itself - the prison that was the tenth dimension, and Em as the guard of that prison.

Perhaps as much as a cop, a fed, a soldier, and an Interpol agent would represent the four most prominent forces in a standard universe.

While John was at it, he might as well throw in another metaphor and say that the entire system of dimensions zero through ten was a bureaucracy, whose sole purpose was to fuel itself. It was an authoritarian autocracy of "symmetry" with Em as the words in the newspeak dictionary by which George Orwell had written to warn others of, Franz Kafka had nodded his head in both empathy and sympathy, and Edwin Abbott had once illustrated the perspective of such beings.

When the metaphor regarding a newspeak dictionary was concerned came up in John's thought process, he was reminded of a glancing observation he had made and had thought odd. It was odd indeed that earlier in the human's English - and as time went on some other languages - speaking populations were slowly becoming illiterate as time went on. Well, only illiterate in the sense that the words by which was readily available and widely used were slowly becoming less and less in volume. Sure, the English language was evolving in the sense that there were some new words introduced occasionally, but they were normally of nouns to describe new things.

Of course, the words were written in a dictionary with a proper definition, but that did not mean the people had those words readily available to use in speech, and if they did it was not probable that the general public would understand the - sometimes older, yet more specific - wording. In fact, John found that if a person's speech was deemed more literate than others, they would be scorned rather than the general populace take the time to educate themselves further to understand the previously obfuscated wording to them. They were looked upon as individuals that liked to feed their own superiority complex, or something similar.

John found it very odd that the percentage of the population of literate people rose, yet at the same time the percentage of literate people declined. That was to say, more and more people were able to read and write over time in a percentage, yet people's capability for information to be discussed was stunted with a higher illiteracy percentage of meaningful words to describe the information worth discussing.

He wondered if this natural evolution of linguistics was actually a devolution in disguise or an Orwellian wording in a "modern" day society.

This was why John so loved observing species, they provided the best food for thought observation could buy.

*LB*

 **A/N: This looks, at first, as a very "filler" type of chapter. However, it does hold quite a few crosses, you just have to guess what they are, and squint to find them. It's very "Where's Waldo," I think.**

 **Except for the fact that the crosses were fairly obvious, depending on your definition of a proper cross.**

 **Anyway, any of you that might have been reading my "Harry Got Board" series, I had discontinued it, because I just don't remember where I was going with it and as such, I had lost the muse to write it anymore. It had gone on un-updated for a long enough time that I thought it was reasonable to consider it dead now.**

 **That being said, I have not written a Frankenstein cross yet, so there may be a resurrection in the future regarding your favourite green eyed wizard and the world of Remnant. The resurrection just might not be along the same storyline.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed, and please review.**


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